Henry Samueli

What's in a name? A lot, at least at two engineering schools in Southern California named after high-tech billionaire and generous donor Henry Samueli. The Samueli name could be stripped from engineering schools at UCLA and UC Irvine as a result of his recent guilty plea to a felony charge of lying to financial regulators. A review of the issue is being launched by the University of California's general counsel, officials said.

Broadcom Corp., an Irvine company that makes chips used in popular tech gadgets including Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPad, says sales this quarter will be higher than it initially forecast. The company said in a statement Tuesday that it expected fourth-quarter sales of between $2 billion and $2.05 billion, up from its previous guidance of $1.92 billion to $2.03 billion. Broadcom said it was raising the forecast because of "better-than-expected revenue in each reportable segment, particularly in infrastructure and networking.

In the latest legal twists for Broadcom Corp.'s billionaire co-founders, one is clinging to his freedom while the other tries to hang on to multimillion-dollar homes in Orange County and Las Vegas. Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III were charged separately this year in an alleged scheme to manipulate stock options for employees of the Irvine microchip maker they created in 1991. Samueli, 53, a philanthropist and owner of the Anaheim Ducks hockey team, pleaded guilty in June to one count of making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Ducks owner Henry Samueli, whose management company operates the Honda Center, said Wednesday he doesn't anticipate bringing an NBA team to the arena as a tenant any time soon but he remains committed to backing his money-losing NHL team and maintaining a state-of-the-art arena. Samueli and his wife, Susan, bought the Ducks from the Walt Disney Co. in 2005 and have since spent $80 million on arena improvements. That includes upgrading locker rooms to NBA standards and undertaking the $20-million Grand Terrace entertainment project that will open Oct. 10, coinciding with the Ducks' home opener.

Technology billionaire and philanthropist Henry Samueli pleaded guilty Monday to a felony charge of lying to regulators about his role in an alleged plot to secretly reward his Broadcom Corp. employees by manipulating stock options. Under a deal with prosecutors, Samueli pleaded guilty in federal court in Santa Ana to making a false statement to the Securities and Exchange Commission. The government is recommending five years' probation and $12.

Federal prosecutors decided Friday not to appeal a judge's recent dismissals of criminal stock options backdating charges against Broadcom Corp. co-founders Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III. The decision brought to a close a two-year legal battle between the billionaire executives and the Justice Department. Late Friday, Nicholas released a statement that said, "The decision by the Department of Justice reconfirms my faith in our criminal justice system." In December, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney dismissed the charges against Samueli and Nicholas, accusing prosecutors of a "shameful" campaign to intimidate witnesses and obtain unjustified convictions.

A perennially underfunded marine institute for children in Dana Point received a huge financial lift Wednesday that will help transform it into a research campus serving 135,000 students a year from across Southern California. The benefactors of the Ocean Institute are Broadcom co-founder Henry Samueli and an anonymous donor, who together put up $9.5 million to help reshape the marine science facility.

The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved $75 million in privately backed bonds to "set the table" for the NBA's Sacramento Kings to make Honda Center their new home next season. The bonds will be backed by three companies of Henry Samueli, the Anaheim Ducks' owner and Honda Center operator, and are designated to pay for relocation fees the Kings will need to pay the NBA, along with improvements to Honda Center. Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait called the meeting "historic" at its opening, and said after the vote he was "stoked" by the council's action.

Henry Samueli asked a federal appeals panel today to uphold his plea bargain in the Broadcom Corp. stock manipulation case, an agreement that would allow the billionaire Anaheim Ducks owner to escape a prison sentence after pleading guilty to lying and paying a special fine of $12 million. U.S. District Judge Cormac Carney in Santa Ana had refused to accept Samueli's deal with prosecutors a year ago, saying it "gives the impression that justice is for sale." The Broadcom co-founder and former chairman sat with his wife, Susan, in a Pasadena courtroom as his attorney, Gordon Greenberg, asked a three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn Carney's ruling.

In a dramatic twist, a federal judge on Wednesday cleared Broadcom Corp. co-founder Henry Samueli of a criminal charge of lying to investigators in a probe of improper accounting at the Irvine microchip designer. U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney a year ago had rejected a plea bargain for Samueli because it did not allow for any jail time for the Orange County billionaire and philanthropist, who owns the Anaheim Ducks hockey team. But in a seeming about-face, Carney dismissed the felony case.

Scott McGregor, the chief executive of chip developer Broadcom Corp., is happy to talk about the expanding list of uses for his company's products - smart cars, for instance - and new innovations that will fuel his company's growth for years to come. Just don't ask which cellphone he carries in his pocket. Broadcom, based in Irvine, designs and sells chips that are used in Apple Inc.'s iPhone as well as in smartphones that use Google Inc.'s Android operating system, the iPhone's chief rival.

Honda Center, still in contention to bring an NBA team to Anaheim, will undergo improvements to the 19-year-old arena valued in the "tens of millions" of dollars, arena officials said Thursday. Tim Ryan, president and CEO of Honda Center's operator, Anaheim Arena Management, said in a statement that the upgrades represent "the most significant improvement project ever seen at Honda Center … [and] will have a dramatic impact on the overall fan experience and assure Honda Center stands up favorably next to any arena in the country, including those that house multiple sports franchises.

The Anaheim City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved $75 million in privately backed bonds to "set the table" for the NBA's Sacramento Kings to make Honda Center their new home next season. The bonds will be backed by three companies of Henry Samueli, the Anaheim Ducks' owner and Honda Center operator, and are designated to pay for relocation fees the Kings will need to pay the NBA, along with improvements to Honda Center. Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait called the meeting "historic" at its opening, and said after the vote he was "stoked" by the council's action.

If you have to kiss a lot of amphibians to find a prince, you have to woo a lot of NBA teams to win one's heart. With March 1 the deadline to file for relocation, Sacramento Kings owners Joe and Gavin Maloof are maintaining a stony silence about their intentions. This suggests two possibilities for Anaheim with its NBA-ready arena, after months of discussions with the Maloofs, who reportedly visited two weeks ago: It's Plan A, with the Maloofs giving Sacramento a last chance.

The hits just keep on coming for Irvine's Broadcom Corp. Trouble is, they're not always the kind of hits the company wants. The chip maker on Tuesday is expected to report robust earnings topping $300 million for its fourth quarter, which ended Dec. 31 ? more than five times its profit for the same period last year. That's the good news, and it stems from Broadcom's success is designing chips for for many of the world's bestselling consumer devices: Android phones and Wiis, iPhones and iPads, to name a few. During the last quarter, Apple Inc.'s blockbuster tablet and smart phone sold far more than most analysts expected.

Ducks owners Henry and Susan Samueli , in their first comments since the NHL lifted its suspension of Henry in November, said they remain committed to the franchise for the long term despite losing "double-digit millions" and seeing the team's slide since its 2007 Stanley Cup triumph extend to missing the playoffs last season. "We have so much passion for the team," Susan Samueli said Thursday. "It just makes us appreciate the Stanley Cup even more, that we had a difficult year last year.

Ballot measures: An article in Section A on Saturday about billionaires sponsoring state propositions on the Tuesday ballot was accompanied by one wrong photograph. The man identified in the caption as Henry T. Nicholas III, who is backing Propositions 6 and 9, was actually Henry Samueli. Nicholas is pictured here. The Times regrets the error.

A former Broadcom Corp. executive agreed to pay $1.4 million to settle claims that she participated in a scheme to backdate stock options, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Tuesday. Nancy Tullos, former vice president of human resources at the Irvine-based chip maker, pleaded guilty to one count of obstruction of justice this year in a deal with prosecutors. Tullos is expected to cooperate with prosecutors who are investigating Broadcom co-founders Henry T. Nicholas III and Henry Samueli in the case.

Federal prosecutors decided Friday not to appeal a judge's recent dismissals of criminal stock options backdating charges against Broadcom Corp. co-founders Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III. The decision brought to a close a two-year legal battle between the billionaire executives and the Justice Department. Late Friday, Nicholas released a statement that said, "The decision by the Department of Justice reconfirms my faith in our criminal justice system." In December, U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney dismissed the charges against Samueli and Nicholas, accusing prosecutors of a "shameful" campaign to intimidate witnesses and obtain unjustified convictions.

The Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday dropped a stock-options backdating lawsuit against four Broadcom Corp. figures, the latest legal victory for the Irvine chip company. SEC attorney Molly M. White said the commission chose not to pursue the litigation against Broadcom co-founders Henry Samueli and Henry T. Nicholas III and two former executives "after careful consideration" of comments that a judge made about the case at a hearing in January. The lawsuit, filed in 2008 in the Santa Ana federal courthouse, had sought civil penalties against the men for failing to disclose that they had backdated stock-option grants.